[Vocabulary] INCIDENT

[hitinvo]

Could anyone explain the meaning of Incident?
Thanks,

 

[Rover_KE]

I expect you've looked up the word in a dictionary.

Ask again if there's anything specific that you don't understand about the definitions given.

Rover

 

[hitinvo]

i have looked it already, but it has many meanings and i can not understand it. Therefore i just want to know the main meaning of this word. Can anyone help me?

 

[Trance Freak]

'Incident' is what what we call an event, something that just happened or occurred. Could be fugacious, global, accidental, embarrassing, odd or even felicitous!

 

[TheParser]

Could anyone explain the meaning of Incident?
Thanks,

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Hitinvo.

(1) Yes, this word is very confusing.

(2) I checked my books and here are a few ideas:

(a) "Incident" usually has a negative (bad) meaning.

(b) It is a minor (little) event or happening.

(c) But today many native speakers use it as a "euphemism."

(i) A euphemism is a "nice" word for something that makes

people angry, or scared, or sad, etc.

(a) For example, we do not like to say that someone "died." So

we say that someone "passed away" or "slept away." It sounds

more gentle than "died" -- a word that scares us.

(d) Let's say that there is a nuclear bomb accident. Maybe the

newspapers do not want to scare the people, so they will just

say that "there has been a nuclear incident." The word "incident"

gives the idea that the nuclear bomb accident was not important.

(e) Most dictionaries seem to agree that an "incident" is:


a minor (little) event (happening) that is violent, or unpleasant or

dangerous.





But nowadays the media (newspapers, TV, etc.) use the

word "incident" because they want to say: Don't worry! What happened

was not super important. They do not always use the true words.

(1) Recently country X supposedly sank a ship belonging to country Y.

Some newspapers did not want to scare the people and did not want to

help start a war. So they did not use words like "attack"

or "aggression." They just reported that there was a "naval incident."


(f) When there is a big accident and many people die, it is

not honest to call it only an "incident" because to many native

speakers the word means that what happened was not very important.

(g) If five people throw rocks at the police, maybe that is an "incident."

But if 1,000 people threw rocks, that would be a riot. Yet some people

are afraid to use that word because they do not want to scare people or

maybe hurt somebody's feelings. So they use the word "incident."

(h) Let's say that some bad guys with guns rob you and hit you and hurt

you. That is very serious. The law calls that armed robbery and assault.

Those bad guys deserve many years in jail. When you get home, your

family members say, "What happened?" You do not want them to

worry about you. So you say, "Oh, nothing. There was just a little

incident on the way home." Of course, you are telling a lie. It was more

than an "incident," but sometimes we use the word "incident" because

we do not want others to worry or maybe because we are embarrassed

for other people to know the truth.

(3) If you have more questions about this word, please post them.

***** Thank you *****

 

[philadelphia]

*Not a teacher at all

You may have trouble understanding the difference between accident and incident

An accident could be part of an incident while an incident could encircle and/or cause an accident. Anyway both are unexpected

Eg A hurricane caused a pileup on the motorway